Whispers of Truth, Vol. 3 of Quaker Encounters (review)

BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES51 narrative flow of the work for the casual reader, the elimination of whole episodes is very disappointing. Furthermore, this being die case, footnotes could have been added to indicate the extent and subject matter of these excisions. I selected, at random, based on my memory of the original diaries, two examples of these omissions. In 1802, Cope visits Charles Willson Peale's museum and describes the mastedon skeleton Peale has just excavated , an event that excited Philadelphia and stimulated die young nation's interest in its natural history; Cope's description of the beast contributes to this bit of social history. In 1820, Cope travels to Saratoga Springs for his health (continuing later to Canada and New England) and provides us with a fascinating account of "taking the waters" at Saratoga and hobnobbing with DeWitt Clinton and other notables, all of which is in the book. But while there, he visits the Shaker village of Niskeyuna, attending a Shaker worship service which he describes in his usual vivid, elegant style. This episode would surely add to our knowledge of Shaker practice. Second, some attempt to set Cope's comments in their historic context would have been extremely helpful to casual reader and historian alike. Simple annotations covering the background of events would have added depth to his frequent references to people and episodes which were characters or scenes in a larger historic drama, such as the demise of the Second Bank of the United States, land speculation in the early 1800's, and the various schisms plaguing the Society of Friends. An orientation regarding some of the names in the diary is provided, but the lack of a similar orientation for significant historic events tends to detract from the excitement of reading history through contemporary eyes. These two objections, however, cannot materially diminish the significance of the publication of these diaries. Diaries are invaluable historic documents, of course, but particularly so when the diarist plays a leading role in the history of his region and his time, and when the quality of his writing is so outstanding. The Cope family members responsible for the publication of this record are to be commended for bringing it to light; as we follow Thomas Pym Cope through his tremendously busy, fruitful life, we hope that, in spite of his expressed desire to remain out of the limelight, he will assume his richly merited place as one of Philadelphia's most noted and valued citizens. Regional Economic History CenterEleanor Maass Eleutherian Mills-Hagley FoundationResearch Associate Wilmington, Delaware Whispers of Truth, Vol. 3 of Quaker Encounters. By John Ormerod Greenwood . York, England: William Sessions, Ltd., 1978. 400, viii, pp., maps. $11.95 (£4.95) This volume follows Friends and Relief, a definitive history of British Quaker relief work from the Napoleonic wars until after the second World War, and Vines on the Mountain, a history of Quaker outreach from the 1660's. Whispers of Truth completes the series detailing the activities of the Friends Service Council and its antecedents. American, and in more recent years, African and Latin American Quaker 52QUAKER HISTORY outreach lies outside the scope of Greenwood's excellent study, although the interface between British and American programs is noted—particularly in respect to relief activities. For a more complete understanding of the Quaker presence in Africa, India, or in China, particularly, complementary studies are needed. The gap is partially filled by books such as Painter's Hill of Vision, Chilson's Ambassador of the King, Williams' Fifty Years in China, Roberts' Quakers in Alaska, and the studies of church planting in South and Central America by Nordyke, Enyart, and Madrid. Greenwood's thorough research is apparent. The reader is drenched in data occasionally, some of it whimsical and even gossipy. Theophilus WaIdmeier comes to the reader resembling one of the lesser heroes of faith in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews—an even mixture of faith and foible. Being a bit of a romantic myself, I was struck by the courage and dedication of the many missionaries and service workers whose risks to health, family solidarity , and to life itself are narrated with understated empathy by this British Friend...